accelerus:They are whaling for food -- what's the problem with that? If they are staying within their quotas and conforming to all international laws on the subject, leave them the fark alone.

It's illegal to whale for food unless you are an aborigine using what amounts to caveman tools. Japan illegally issues scientific whale hunting permits to commercial fishermen who sell their catch on the market.

On 23 July 1982, members of the IWC voted by the necessary three-quarters majority to implement a pause on commercial whaling. The relevant text reads:

"Notwithstanding the other provisions of paragraph 10, catch limits for the killing for commercial purposes of whales from all stocks for the 1986 coastal and the 1985/86 pelagic seasons and thereafter shall be zero. This provision will be kept under review, based upon the best scientific advice, and by 1990 at the latest the Commission will undertake a comprehensive assessment of the effects of this decision on whale stocks and consider modification of this provision and the establishment of other catch limits."

Is this the very first day in your entire young life you've logged into the Internets?

Why yes! Today is the first day...of course I've done a lot reading in my 46 years so I'm one of those people who doesn't actually believe that everything I might see on the interwebs is true. I've been reading dead trees for like, forever. jk, lol, rotflmao. I did find this on the interweb thingie though...

"Haji (shame) is said to form the core of Japanese culture. Japanese culture is described as "shame culture " in contrast to Western "guilt culture". In the west one can say that one's behavior is based, or dictated, by a sense of guilt resulting from one's actions. The feeling of guilt in the west is an internal feeling; the feeling of shame in Japan is an external feeling. This is not to suggest that the west is shameless, but rather that historically, Japan, has placed a great deal upon the feeling of shame. One can look to the samurai period for an example of shame. For a samurai, being put to shame in front of the public was as good as death."

The people on here who think the Japanese are ramming the Sea Sheperd ship are clueless. What the pirates are doing is quickly pulling in front of a ship that needs a great distance to stop. No more ramming then if u cut off a semi on the interstate.

jtown:johnny_vegas: jtown: While I think that group exploits young people, putting them in absurdly dangerous situations with little or no training, I don't see what a United States court has to say about it. They're not using US-flagged ships and they're not doing these things in US waters or targeting US-flagged ships. If Japan has a problem, let Japan deal with it. If Australia has a problem, let Australia take care of it. If one of their ship's flag nations has a problem, let them deal with it. None of those countries needs the US to step in.

i think the company is incorporated in the US (Seattle?)

Ah. Then this would be Step 1 in the process of seizing their funds because they're funding terrorist operations.

Actually, with this court ruling it could go far worse for them (and even though I consider the Sea Shepherd crew to be attention whores who are fighting "research whaling" for human consumption the Wrong Way, I do worry for them with the ruling).

You see, in general, piracy on the high seas is considered a military matter--to sum up maritime law on piracy in a Cliff's Notes version, pretty much once a group are considered pirates every navy in the world has carte blanche to blow the hell out of them--and in fact may be mandated to do so. (Under US law in particular, life imprisonment is mandated for the crime of piracy...assuming the pirates make it to the US alive. In the case of Japan, it could well be worse; Japan DOES have the death penalty on its books, though it's unknown to me whether piracy is considered a capital offense.)

/yes, folks, this is srs bzns//still say the Right Way would have involved playing up how younger Japanese think whale is pretty farking disgusting; now the Japanese pretty much embrace whaling the way a dominionist embraces anti-LGBT hate because they're told YOU ARE WRONG AND HORRIBLE FOR THIS and they go HOW DARE YOU THIS IS MY CULTURE DAMNIT///if they had to go all Captain Ahab (pun intended) on Japanese whalers, the Right Way is to get a formal letter of marque and reprisal from a country who is a signatory to the whaling ban, best bet would be Australia

The research excuse for the whaling is kind of hilarious. As a biologist, let me say you would never in a million years get a study like that past an ethics board. Large animal research is never conducted by killing the animals in significant numbers. Not even when the animals are abundant.

They're commercially hunting them for food in violation of international law, and nobody even wants the meat. It's ridiculous.

Mid_mo_mad_man:The people on here who think the Japanese are ramming the Sea Sheperd ship are clueless. What the pirates are doing is quickly pulling in front of a ship that needs a great distance to stop. No more ramming then if u cut off a semi on the interstate.

Go to YouTube and watch the vids. The Nishin Maru is deliberately ramming the Sea Shepard ships from behind. The crew of the Nishin Maru is using flash-bang grenades within feet of a tanker. They've even crushed the life raft escape slides on the tanker itself. The Bob Barker now has several large cracks opened up in the superstucture so you can literally see through to the engine room from the upper deck. All of its comm masts have been crushed by the Nishin Maru. The Japanese whalers are the ones breaking maritime laws here, and laws against poaching whales.

The Sea Shepard people are NOT untrained. They have all the necessary maritime certifications. Many are US and Australian Navy veterans, and have more experience than any National Navy sailor fresh out of basic. Most of the crew have Bachelors or masters degrees in such things as maritime law, oceanography or marine biology.

There are several Ph.Ds on board the Bob Barker and the other Sea Shepard ships.

HotWingAgenda:accelerus: They are whaling for food -- what's the problem with that? If they are staying within their quotas and conforming to all international laws on the subject, leave them the fark alone.

It's illegal to whale for food unless you are an aborigine using what amounts to caveman tools. Japan illegally issues scientific whale hunting permits to commercial fishermen who sell their catch on the market.

On 23 July 1982, members of the IWC voted by the necessary three-quarters majority to implement a pause on commercial whaling. The relevant text reads:

"Notwithstanding the other provisions of paragraph 10, catch limits for the killing for commercial purposes of whales from all stocks for the 1986 coastal and the 1985/86 pelagic seasons and thereafter shall be zero. This provision will be kept under review, based upon the best scientific advice, and by 1990 at the latest the Commission will undertake a comprehensive assessment of the effects of this decision on whale stocks and consider modification of this provision and the establishment of other catch limits."

Well, nothing trumps an argument like a wiki link. Thread over. An IWC ban is not the same as international maritime law. Guess which one trumps the other.

Deathfrogg:The Sea Shepard ships are flagged in New Zealand and Australia. Australia has claimed sovereignty over the whole southern ocean between Australia and Antarctica, and ANZUS maritime treaties back that claim. The Japanese are poaching in Australian national waters.

Then all the better reason for the Sea Shepherd to have worked with the Australian and/or New Zealand governments to get a formal letter of marque and reprisal (which would have legally covered their ass from claims of piracy, of note; with that letter, they're basically working as a private agent authorised expressly by the government to prevent whaling ships from conducting illegal activity, and Japan would have to biatch to the Australian or New Zealand government instead of trying to prosecute the Sea Shepherd crew for what is seen as the One Big Unforgivable in maritime law).

I'm not a fan of the tactics they use, but I can at least understand WHY they're going for direct action--but again, maritime law is a rather different beast than On-Shore National Law and the potential penalties for monkeywrenching are sufficiently severe that you really want to cover your ass doing this--and if you can cover your ass by having an official governmental document basically making you James Bond of the High Seas, even better.

(And by "considerably more serious"...well, for similar bits of monkeywrenching on land you'd just at best get charged with vandalism or felony destruction of property, you might get a restraining order against you, but even if your group is part of an organised domestic terrorist organisation you still aren't going to have as severe penalties as Monkeywrenching At Sea. The latter tends to be defined as the Crime of Sabotage or the Crime of Piracy, both of which are literally capital offenses in many countries--piracy in particular is taken so seriously that in some countries the only death penalty offenses that remain on the books are the crimes of high treason and piracy. In general, the US military doesn't have carte blanche to blow your ass up for wrecking a company that conducts cruel and unnecessary animal testing; they do if you're considered to be interfering with a ship at sea to the point it causes major property damage. Hence why you want to be very, very careful re Direct Action At Sea.)

Great Porn Dragon:jtown: johnny_vegas: jtown: While I think that group exploits young people, putting them in absurdly dangerous situations with little or no training, I don't see what a United States court has to say about it. They're not using US-flagged ships and they're not doing these things in US waters or targeting US-flagged ships. If Japan has a problem, let Japan deal with it. If Australia has a problem, let Australia take care of it. If one of their ship's flag nations has a problem, let them deal with it. None of those countries needs the US to step in.

i think the company is incorporated in the US (Seattle?)

Ah. Then this would be Step 1 in the process of seizing their funds because they're funding terrorist operations.

Actually, with this court ruling it could go far worse for them (and even though I consider the Sea Shepherd crew to be attention whores who are fighting "research whaling" for human consumption the Wrong Way, I do worry for them with the ruling).

You see, in general, piracy on the high seas is considered a military matter--to sum up maritime law on piracy in a Cliff's Notes version, pretty much once a group are considered pirates every navy in the world has carte blanche to blow the hell out of them--and in fact may be mandated to do so. (Under US law in particular, life imprisonment is mandated for the crime of piracy...assuming the pirates make it to the US alive. In the case of Japan, it could well be worse; Japan DOES have the death penalty on its books, though it's unknown to me whether piracy is considered a capital offense.)

/yes, folks, this is srs bzns//still say the Right Way would have involved playing up how younger Japanese think whale is pretty farking disgusting; now the Japanese pretty much embrace whaling the way a dominionist embraces anti-LGBT hate because they're told YOU ARE WRONG AND HORRIBLE FOR THIS and they go HOW DARE YOU THIS IS MY CULTURE DAMNIT///if they had to go all Captain Ahab (pun intended) on Japanese wha ...

Over 5,000 tons of the meat go unsold in public markets, and it would be worse if it weren't for whale meat being used in school meals, which still goes largely unused but is considered 'consumed' or 'sold' in most metrics, so waste isn't measured on that end.The latest data shows that current consumption is around 1% of record recorded highs.

Sadly, the Japanese govt answer to this is to force the allowance of even more whaling, and increasing kill quotas by several hundred whales.... But wait, I thought the killing was for research purposes and the flesh and carcass were being reclaimed as food because it had to be. D'oh!

/I also don't think what the sea shepherds are doing is the best route, but bad ideas spring from the inaction or indifference of better minds.

If the whales are as smart as people make them out to be they should revolt against the Japanese. They could be like "BUBBLEBUBLBLblGGRR" which is "I'm tired of these biatches." and just start attacking.

sat1va:I went on a whaling mission with my Icelandic grandfather in 1984 at the age of 6. We harpooned a couple of small whales (I have pictures of them gutted on the pier but I don't know what species)and it fed a bunch of people in the small town of Isafjordur where he lived. Food was a precious commodity back then and they ate what ever they could get. My grandfather's brother died right in front of him when they were young while repelling down a cliff to get puffin eggs to feed the family.

That being said, these Japanese whalers are likely hunting the whales to make boner pills or something, the more exotic and endangered the harder the boner.

Actually, a lot of the whaling pretty much boils down to a bad case of Southern Stubborn among the Japanese (aka "HOW DARE YOU TELL ME I DID A BAD THING THIS IS OUR CULTURE BY GUM AND SO WE'LL DO IT MOAR TO PISS YOU OFF")...pretty much all of the whale meat goes into the school system as really, really cheap food...and pretty much most Japanese under the age of about 40-50 or so tend to think of whale the same way we Americans think of the blood-bones-and-sawdust "burger meat" in our school lunches...that is, as Meals That Would Be Refused By Starving Sudanese As Unfit For Dog Food Much Less Human Consumption.

Pretty much had it not been for some of the more extreme bits of Attention Whoring, whaling would have quite possibly died out (nobody buys whale anymore in Japan, it's pretty much commodity mystery-meat in school)...but thanks to the "HOW DARE YOU MURDER FLIPPER!" outrage from everyone save Norway, Iceland and a few First Nations groups in the Northwest parts of North America, the Japanese have pretty much done the same thing that your average Southerner does upon mention that the Confederate battle flag MIGHT have some unsavoury notions and pretty much promoted whaling as some sort of National And Cultural Identity Thing Under Attack By The Big, Bad World Outside Who Just Doesn't Understand, Kami-Damnit.

(Yes, you're reading this right--the Japanese pretty much do whaling as a sort of National Emo Demonstration To Show Everyone Else That They're Wrong For Criticising Them. Just like those folks who scream "HERITAGE NOT HATE!" re the Confederate battle flag.)

andychrist420:An IWC ban is not the same as international maritime law. Guess which one trumps the other.

Man, when you don't do your research, you really don't bother doing your research. Maritime law regarding commercial fishing and such is enacted by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The implementation of the Convention as it regards whaling is delegated to the IWC, of which Japan is emphatically a member. Guess which island nation to the East of China ratified the Convention?

/admittedly, the US has not ratified the Convention, although we are in the IWC

Anyways if you cross my ships course and damage my ships propulsion over and over again you better expect me to fight back. These people purposely put themselves (young volunteers not the leaders) in harmsway. They have repeatedly unlawfully board (piracy) a ship flying the flag of Japan a violation of international law. Please tell me how pulling a ship into the course of another and not giving way is the fault of the ship maintaining course? You were attempting to alter the ships course and got hit. Its like someone slamming on the brakes in an insurance scam. Seems like pirates like piracy.

msupf:Somebody just buy a couple of Russian torpedoes for these guys and sink the fricken Japanese whalers already.

I would think that they could buy or lease a Russian sub for much cheaper than all the money they have spent over the last couple years. Hell, I would donate for that mission as well. A little home made thermite would probably resolve the situation pretty quickly too.

msupf:Over 5,000 tons of the meat go unsold in public markets, and it would be worse if it weren't for whale meat being used in school meals, which still goes largely unused but is considered 'consumed' or 'sold' in most metrics, so waste isn't measured on that end.The latest data shows that current consumption is around 1% of record recorded highs.

Sadly, the Japanese govt answer to this is to force the allowance of even more whaling, and increasing kill quotas by several hundred whales.... But wait, I thought the killing was for research purposes and the flesh and carcass were being reclaimed as food because it had to be. D'oh!

And as I (and others) have noted...pretty much the whole reason it's continuing is:

a) Basically the Japanese do have a social concept rather akin to the concept of Southern Honor, and really don't take it well when told they are doing a Bad Thing (hence why the atrocities of WW II are STILL not generally taught in Japanese schools, among other things)--there really, really is a HUGE cultural stigma re shame and being shamed, to the point that death is seen as better (not making this up).

b) Pretty much because the rest of the world IS rubbing their nose in it and pointing out "YOU DO THIS BAD THING", Japan pretty much is doing MOAR whaling to show them how wrong they are rather than admit that the whole whaling thing is a waste at this point--because they CANNOT lose national face.

c) Hence generations of Japanese kids learning to loathe whale meat about the same way we learned to hate Barfaroni and "school hamburgers" in public schools.

(And yes, probably the easiest way to understand the Japanese mindset on this without living in Japan is to see some of the reactions in the Southeast US in particular re the Confederacy and particularly the Confederate battle flag--even people who agree that the actions of the Confederacy re slavery were heinous will often go ballistic when it's noted that the rest of the world tends to think of the Confederate battle flag as a symbol of gross ignorance at best if not a frank hate symbol not unlike the Nazi misuse of the swastika. They pretty much see it as an attack on their very identity. :P)

Hence why I say that the best way to have stopped whaling in Japan was to point out that nobody eats the shiat, everyone thinks it's horrible food not even fit for giving to the family cat, and that they're spending millions if not billions of yen to hunt whales that nobody wants to eat and nobody outside of Inuvik even considers food...and that even the Inuit only want the blubber and want THAT to be well and properly "fermented" first, preferably for the better part of a year. Point out that millions if not billions of yen are being spent getting folks filthy in whaling for stuff nobody in their right mind eats in Japan. :3

Deathfrogg:Mid_mo_mad_man: The people on here who think the Japanese are ramming the Sea Sheperd ship are clueless. What the pirates are doing is quickly pulling in front of a ship that needs a great distance to stop. No more ramming then if u cut off a semi on the interstate.

Go to YouTube and watch the vids. The Nishin Maru is deliberately ramming the Sea Shepard ships from behind. The crew of the Nishin Maru is using flash-bang grenades within feet of a tanker. They've even crushed the life raft escape slides on the tanker itself. The Bob Barker now has several large cracks opened up in the superstucture so you can literally see through to the engine room from the upper deck. All of its comm masts have been crushed by the Nishin Maru. The Japanese whalers are the ones breaking maritime laws here, and laws against poaching whales.

The Sea Shepard people are NOT untrained. They have all the necessary maritime certifications. Many are US and Australian Navy veterans, and have more experience than any National Navy sailor fresh out of basic. Most of the crew have Bachelors or masters degrees in such things as maritime law, oceanography or marine biology.

There are several Ph.Ds on board the Bob Barker and the other Sea Shepard ships.

I think the video clearly shows the smaller ships impeding the larger...they are deliberately getting in the way. It appears their maneuvering in this video and others is a violation of maritime rules.

Also i do not think the australians have a valid claim to the entire southern ocean. They have a validated excessive continental shelf true....and ANZUS recognition is nice but UNCLOS is what matters.

"What Sea Shepherd Australia is doing with Australian flagged vessels and Dutch flagged vessels down in the Australian Antarctic territory is outside of any sort of control of the courts in the United States"

And well, that pretty much sums that up. Our courts have zero jurisdiction over this.

ThunderPelvis:These dipsh*ts are a wet dream come true for the equally dickheaded Japanese nationalist groups. Whaling will continue if *only* to spite Sea Shepherd.

/which reminds me, I need to try some whale sashimi soon.

Will

continue? That's pretty much the only reason it continues now--it's literally the Japanese nationalistards' version of "Heritage Not Hate" at this point, and pretty much whaling only continues as an upraised middle finger to the rest of the world community who tells the Japanese government that they're doing Bad Things By Whaling (which pretty much in and of itself triggers the "HOW DARE YOU TRY TO SHAME ME DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO YOU AREN'T THE MASTER OF ME" response in the Japanese national psyche).

I can definitely see why the Sea Shepherd does what it does, and I am NOT one of those who thinks whale should be on the menu (or whaled, period; we have jojoba oil and other substitutes for the OTHER stuff we used to whale for) but I can say that (based on what I have seen re the Japanese psyche and the American equivalent)...I worry that their actions may be counterproductive.

Why are the Japanese the only ones compared to stone headed Southerners? Telling the SS that their tactics are wrongheaded and detrimental to the cause seems to meet with the same stubborn refusal to accept criticism.

Deathfrogg:Mid_mo_mad_man: The people on here who think the Japanese are ramming the Sea Sheperd ship are clueless. What the pirates are doing is quickly pulling in front of a ship that needs a great distance to stop. No more ramming then if u cut off a semi on the interstate.

Go to YouTube and watch the vids. The Nishin Maru is deliberately ramming the Sea Shepard ships from behind. The crew of the Nishin Maru is using flash-bang grenades within feet of a tanker. They've even crushed the life raft escape slides on the tanker itself. The Bob Barker now has several large cracks opened up in the superstucture so you can literally see through to the engine room from the upper deck. All of its comm masts have been crushed by the Nishin Maru. The Japanese whalers are the ones breaking maritime laws here, and laws against poaching whales.

The Sea Shepard people are NOT untrained. They have all the necessary maritime certifications. Many are US and Australian Navy veterans, and have more experience than any National Navy sailor fresh out of basic. Most of the crew have Bachelors or masters degrees in such things as maritime law, oceanography or marine biology.

Thereare several Ph.Ds on board the Bob Barker and the other Sea Shepard ships.

Have you ever navigated a large river with barge traffic? I'm guessing no. Let clue you into something. Big vessels don't stop if something suddenly pull into thier path. The whalers would always have right of way over a speedy vessel crossing its path. It's no different then expecting a train to stop

Deathfrogg:Ima4nic8or: Pirates, terrorists...either name fits these whackjobs. I hope that one day the captain of a bigger ship gets pissed off and rams and sinks their little sea turd.

The factory ship the Japanese are using displaces three times what the Bob Barker does. The Bob Barker has repeatedly been rammed from behind by the Nishin Maru. The Japanese are the ones breaking the law.

wife watches this. i will watch every once in awhile but i just don't get into it like she does. sure I wish the whaling would stop, but come on they fly a pirate flag get me interested start ACTING like pirates for god sakes. maybe a little something 'ala Jack Sparrow, pull alongside storm the ship and tell the whalers to join their crew or get set adrift on a passing iceberg with some Emperor Penguins. see someone get run through on the end of a cutlass. Yeah i know it ain't going to happen but like i said they fly the pirate flag, at least get that captain to stop crying every time he notices the camera is on him.

Vash's Apprentice:AverageAmericanGuy: ThunderPelvis: These dipsh*ts are a wet dream come true for the equally dickheaded Japanese nationalist groups. Whaling will continue if *only* to spite Sea Shepherd.

insertsnarkyusername:Deathfrogg: Pretty strange, considering the fact that the Japanese are literally poaching in a protected area. Australia has banned whaling and fueling at sea in that whole zone and the Japanese factory processing ship has repeatedly rammed the Sea Shepard ships from behind and then left the scene.

The Japanese are the ones breaking multiple international laws here.

Aren't they doing that in international waters that Australia has no control over?

They are doing it in Australian waters, which Australia has no control over. Which may sound odd, but it is because of a loophole in the Antarctic treaty. As part of the treaty, all of the nations with territorial claims agreed to forgo their claims of exclusivity to their waters in exchange for an agreement which prevented mining taking place in the Antarctic. So, if Australia tells Japan to bugger off and go home, the end result is that the treaty falls over and suddenly the US could start covering their Antarctic claims with oil wells (or something like that).Australia is currently taking this issue to some international court of justice (or something like that) but that doesn't save any whales this year, while the self-righteous wankers on the boats are actually making a difference (which kind of excuses the wankeryness). The question of what (if any) force Australia can use and who (if anyone) can enforce parts of the treaty which the Japanese keep ignoring (like refuelling at sea within the protected zones) is a fun one. But I think that it would be much better in he long term if a government (Australia) sent navel or customs vessels to monitor this 'scientific' research, rather than rely on activists (and if we start defining activists as pirates or terrorists I am liable to start signing up for conspiracy theory websites about the new world order).

Now, can we toss Bob Barker's ass in jail for funding these pirates? The man knowingly contributed millions to these assholes, specifically for their ecoterrorist activities, and they named a friggin' ship after him.

Great Porn Dragon:sat1va: I went on a whaling mission with my Icelandic grandfather in 1984 at the age of 6. We harpooned a couple of small whales (I have pictures of them gutted on the pier but I don't know what species)and it fed a bunch of people in the small town of Isafjordur where he lived. Food was a precious commodity back then and they ate what ever they could get. My grandfather's brother died right in front of him when they were young while repelling down a cliff to get puffin eggs to feed the family.

That being said, these Japanese whalers are likely hunting the whales to make boner pills or something, the more exotic and endangered the harder the boner.

Actually, a lot of the whaling pretty much boils down to a bad case of Southern Stubborn among the Japanese (aka "HOW DARE YOU TELL ME I DID A BAD THING THIS IS OUR CULTURE BY GUM AND SO WE'LL DO IT MOAR TO PISS YOU OFF")...pretty much all of the whale meat goes into the school system as really, really cheap food...and pretty much most Japanese under the age of about 40-50 or so tend to think of whale the same way we Americans think of the blood-bones-and-sawdust "burger meat" in our school lunches...that is, as Meals That Would Be Refused By Starving Sudanese As Unfit For Dog Food Much Less Human Consumption.

Pretty much had it not been for some of the more extreme bits of Attention Whoring, whaling would have quite possibly died out (nobody buys whale anymore in Japan, it's pretty much commodity mystery-meat in school)...but thanks to the "HOW DARE YOU MURDER FLIPPER!" outrage from everyone save Norway, Iceland and a few First Nations groups in the Northwest parts of North America, the Japanese have pretty much done the same thing that your average Southerner does upon mention that the Confederate battle flag MIGHT have some unsavoury notions and pretty much promoted whaling as some sort of National And Cultural Identity Thing Under Attack By The Big, Bad World Outside Who Just Doesn't Understand, Kami-Damnit.

(Yes, ...

That's pretty spot on in my book.

My understanding is that the species they hunt have rather quick reproductive cycles AND and are not even close to endangered, which leaves sentience, intelligence (and deep down, where we don't like to admit, cuteness) as the factors separating whales-as-food from other animals-as-food.

Given the recent UK burger meat fiasco, where do we stand on horses? They seem pretty sentient to me, considering you can take a wild horse and figuratively "break" its will. On the other hand, horses are rather delicious. Not everyone agrees if we can eat them or not. Pigs are incredibly intelligent (very adept at mazes, apparently) and if you don't love bacon you are a monster (those who love their faith more than pork, notwithstanding). Octopodes are ridiculously creative and are often described as "moody" by those who care for them, but they rank quite low on the animals-as-food pecking order. Just because they're ugly and a tad slimy? Or because they sit next to slugs and snails on the Tree of Life? What our stance on dogs? Well, you get the picture.

What's food and what ain't is not a black and white question, and they Japanese are happy to exploit a loophole to insist that whales are food. I don't know if they're right, but I like bacon and octopus and even horse (OK, maybe not all together in a bucket), but if someone told me it was morally wrong to eat them, then it has to be wrong to eat ALL animals. Otherwise, shut the F up and enjoy your hypocrisy.

How do you trust a man who claims he was shot, when the cameras showed another story, and the evidence didn't support his claim?

How do you trust a crew who boastfully declare that their lives aren't worth more than a whale, and that they would die for their belief - only to immediately backpedal when a potentially life threatening situation presents itself?

How do you trust someone who has openly stated that they will do whatever they want regardless of what people say, because they believe it to be true?

Now, can we toss Bob Barker's ass in jail for funding these pirates? The man knowingly contributed millions to these assholes, specifically for their ecoterrorist activities, and they named a friggin' ship after him.

I think a drone strike is in order for Bob. If nothing else he was a scumbag for his casting couch

I watched about half of one of their shows and couldn't watch anymore. The whole organization reminded me of a slip and fall bully. They would go out and pick fights and then put themselves in positions to get hurt, then cry foul.

We had someone who would watch this show during their breaks at a former job of mine and he would tear up during the whole show. One day I laughed at him and he threw something at me out of anger, then I laughed harder. Great memories.....

AverageAmericanGuy:ThunderPelvis: These dipsh*ts are a wet dream come true for the equally dickheaded Japanese nationalist groups. Whaling will continue if *only* to spite Sea Shepherd.

/which reminds me, I need to try some whale sashimi soon.

Don't bother. Horse meat sashimi. That's the stuff.

I had basashi and horsemeat nabe a couple of weeks ago, and both were stellar. I also had ikezukuri recently, though, and I have to admit I was a little uncomfortable about it. I've worked on a chicken farm, however, and the suffering of the average chicken wing from KFC makes ikezukuri look practically vegetarian. That's also true for whales.

I'm really surprised these guys don't just buy some black market torpedoes instead of another retired ship and just sink the whole damned whaling fleet. At least that would put an end to the steady stream of idiotic news stories!

Seems like an easy solution. Push for the Aussies and the New Zealanders to confiscate the illegal whaling vessels when they are in their waters, as there aren't supposed to be any whaler ships left anywhere outside of the few nation's exempted from whaling in their territorial waters.

If that actually happened then the Sea Shepards would cease to need to exist, and perhaps the crews could actually use their skills to improve knowledge of the sea like some of them actually have been trained to do. In fact, I'm sure that most of them never really wanted to interfere with shipping in any way, except that it was the only way that they saw that the problem could be spot lighted and possibly corrected.

However, the money/treaty considerations won out again, and the people trying to stop something that is illegal, harmful and completely unneccesary, are now branded the outlaws/pirates/brigands etc. Woohoo, justice has been well served, apparently with a side of well done whale blubber again!

I swear if we could get out of the mentality of the 1800's, maybe the rest of the life on this world will have a chance with us on it, and we'll have a better chance to stay viable as well.